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Almost immediately the concession was canceled by the Colombian Government. For five years the Barco was dragged through Colombian courts and Colombian politics. Finally the Colombian Congress granted the concession to Gulf a second time in a contract that is now the law of that land. Later the Barco entered U. S. politics as a highlight in an early Mellon-baiting show put on in the House of Representatives. Fortnight ago it was announced that the Barco was about to change hands once more, this time passing to Texas Corp. and Socony-Vacuum Corp. (TIME, April 27). This week at Texaco's annual meeting, Chairman T. (for Torkild) Rieber will publicly confirm the Barco purchase, announcing to his stockholders that the deal is signed & sealed.
Partners. For Texaco stockholders this week's meeting will hold two other major interests. One is that Texaco will break precedent by announcing interim earnings (60¢ per share for the March quarter). The other is that it will be the first meeting over which Chairman Rieber has presided since his election (TIME, Aug. 19). In the Barco deal the stockholders will catch their hardheaded, steel-willed chief executive in the type of action he likes best. He personally negotiated with Gulf, bought the 1,200,000-acre concession at his own figure for Texaco alone. With the Barco firmly in hand he went to a company which he knew would be a good partner for a tough job of oil pioneering. At Socony-Vacuum he sold a one-half interest to President John Albert Brown. After the uproar over last year's Ethiopian concession, during which he had to eat his denial that Socony had any connection with the Rickett contract with Haile Selassie, President Brown was more than ready for a foreign oil venture in which the only real political problem was how to make peace with Colombia's Motilone Indians, a completely savage race which likes nothing better than to pink off white oilmen with macana palm arrows. From now on Texaco and Socony will be partners on a 50-50 basis in all expenses and in any profits.